Politics On the Edge
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4.5 • 310 Ratings
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
The searing inside story of our broken politics from the former Cabinet minister and co-host of The Rest Is Politics.
Over the course of a decade, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister – before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise.
Uncompromising, honest and darkly humorous, this is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life. Instantly praised as a new classic, it is an astonishing portrait of our turbulent times.
BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
‘Rory Stewart’s Politics on the Edge digs deeper than most. As well as a fascinating insider account of the Cameron-May-Johnson premierships, it is a scathing portrait of our flawed political system and a “rebarbative profession” that, despite Stewart’s appetite for public service, chewed him up and spat him out’ GUARDIAN
‘Genuinely eye-opening…always riveting, often horrifying’
iNEWS
‘Hugely entertaining’
EVENING STANDARD
‘The most exceptional political memoir I’ve ever read’
ALAN JOHNSON
‘An instant classic’
MARINA HYDE
‘At last a politician who can write’
SEBASTIAN FAULKS
* A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE FT, GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, TELEGRAPH, TIMES, OBSERVER, i NEWSPAPER, NEW STATESMAN, PROSPECT, CHURCH TIMES AND SCOTSMAN *
© 2023 Rory Stewart (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Customer Reviews
Fascinating if not a little depressing!
Excellent writing and orating, teasing humour out of some depressingly bureaucratic governmental processes. Some toe curling accounts of working with Truss, Patel and Johnson. How the hell did they ever come to power!
Sometimes interesting, thematically unstructured, often arrogant
Parts of the book I found very interesting- in particular, the analysis of why the uk Ministerial system and the legislature don’t work well.
It was also interesting getting an insight into the specifics of particular public services – prisons, floods, et cetera
However, the book drifted off too much into a long account of Stewart’s own attempts to become Prime Minister. This was much less interesting and less clearly about the broken structures of UK government. It was like he had forgotten the theme of the book and decided to focus more on autobiography.
In the audiobook version, I also found his accented impressions of the people he quotes to be cringeworthy – especially the African ones…
Splendid, if disturbing.
Rory Stewart writes in a direct style, describing his variety of encounters during a 9-year parliamentary career.
The reader is left shaking their head at the incompetence of the UK governmental system, and the degree to which the ruling party feels like an extension of a boarding school in which members are expected to defer to senior individuals in exchange for small favours and modest advancement.
The limitations upon the ability of ministers to affect the public realm are shown in stark contrast, as individuals are rotated frequently between jobs, primarily to keep them ‘onside’ with the party, and offer a sense of progression. Prior knowledge, experience and skillset mean little in this context, which is alarming for those who experience the long arm of Westminster.
Well narrated by the author, with various accents providing amusement.
As Mr Stewart declares in the prologue, several individuals still in employment will be quite unhappy with this memoir. As an expose of a broken system it is essential reading for those who follow British politics.